Sunday, August 16, 2009

A Lander Climbing Sampler

We started work last Monday. Kids aren't in school yet, but we had a full week of professional development. Our weeknight sessions weren't that long, but we sampled four different areas.

Wild IrisLast weekend we spent a day up at Wild Iris. The weather was cool and sunny. It already felt like Autumn. The sky was bright blue, the grass was green, there were little puffy white clouds just above cliffs with large rounded mushroom-like roofs. The whole environment had a playful feel to it, and it reminded me of something, but it took a minute before I figured it out. Then I realized that it was like being in a real life version of Super Mario Brothers level 1. Such a good game. Such a good climbing area.

We did a few climbs and tried a couple more. Sierra took this photo of me climbing "Butch Pocket & Sundance Pump."

Worthen Meadows BouldersDavin sent directions to a few clusters of boulders off of the loop road that he developed with a few other boulderers. Road construction shortened our session, but we did the following sit start problem called "Viskers." Classic, not too difficult, but it has a couple tiny crimps.Hidden in the woods up there are many large boulders of Poudre quality granite waiting to be cleaned and climbed. I've started cleaning one of them. We'll see what I can do on it. Thanks Davin.

The Cheesegrater BouldersOne evening our goal was a quick finger workout in fading light. Repeating as many problems as we could on the steep faces of Punk Rock did the trick.

Ashley climbing the "North Face."

The Cabin BouldersConvenient high quality problems at the Cabin Boulders drew us in for two sessions. I finally climbed "Mo's Traverse" which turned out to be pretty difficult for me. It took four days to finish it off. I also enjoyed the stand start version of "Honest Joe."

We were very saddened to hear that Craig Luebben died in the Cascades this week. Craig had a huge influence on us and the whole Ft. Collins climbing community. He organized the Horsetooth Hang, and wrote an article on Horsetooth Reservoir bouldering that helped get me into the sport. He was a really nice guy, who always took the time to talk with us when we ran into him at the cliffs. We accompanied friends when they hired him to guide them up some off-widths at Vedauwoo, and went out for dinner that night with him and his wife Silvia. He was a very safety conscious climber, an expert in the field, which drives home the fact that the mountains can take anyone regardless of their level of expertise. Losing Craig is a tremendous loss to the climbing community. Our thoughts are with his family.